Electric railroad.



No. 831,624. PATENTED SEPT. 25, 1906. J. MURPHY.

ELECTRIC RAILROAD. APPLICATION FILED FEB. 9. 190a.

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UNITED srerns PATENT OFFICE.

ELECTRIC RAILROAD.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 25, 1906.

Application filed February 9,1906- Serial No. 300,250.

To all whom it ntcoy concern.-

Be it known that I, JEREMIAH MURPHY, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric Railroads, of which the following, when taken in connection with the drawings accompanying and forming a part hereof, is a full and complete descrip tion, sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to understand, make, and use the same.

This invention relates to electric railroads where a third rail in connection with a trolleywheel or a trolley-shoe is used to convey the electric current which operates the motors of the car thereto; and the object of the invention is to obtain a third rail and a trolley-wheel connection thereto which will not be rendered inoperative by rain, sleet, or snow, and also a third rail which will not imperil the life of those who have occasion to cross the track of which such third rail forms a part.

A further object of the invention is to obtain a third rail in connection with which a trolley-wheel can be used.

In the drawings accompanying and forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a track and third rail em- 'bodying this invention, showing a portion of the wheels of an electric-car truck on the track and Fig. 2 is a cross-section of one rail of the track and third rail, showing one of the standards supporting the third rail in eleva tion.

A reference-letter applied to designate a given part is used to indicate such part throughout both figures of the drawings wherever the same appears.

A is one rail of the track of an electric railroad.

B B are the wheels on track A, and C is the third rail of the track.

D is the trolley-wheel in electric contact with third rail C, and E is the trolley-pole connecting trolley-wheel D to the car-truck in the ordinary way.

F is the standard of third rail C. Stand ard F comprises upright f, provided with base f and head f 2 and the movable part or piece f removably attached to head f by bolts f*.

G is insulating material preventing third rail C from coming into electrical contact with head f 2 or removable part or piece f.

H is a shield attached to standard F, as by bolt f. Shield I-I may consist of a sheetmetal strip bent into proper shape to be attached to the standard and to extend over the third rail, but not in electrical contact therewith. Such shield is preferably of an inverted-U shape when mounted in place, and as it is connected to the head f and removable part f by bolt f and all of such parts f f f are insulated from third rail C such shield H is also insulated from such rail. One coming in contact with such shield is not, therefore, injured thereby, and as will be ob served by reference to Fig. 2 of the drawings the third rail C is so covered by such shield as not to be liable to be accidentally touched by one near thereto.

The trolley-wheel comes in contact with the under side of third rail G in the groove thereof, and the groove that is usually placed in the trolley-wheel is not present in the trolley-wheel used by me, the periphery of the trolley-wheel corresponding with the groove in the under side of the third rail. It is evident that if a rib were put on the under side of the third rail, running longitudinally thereof, in place of the groove which is shown the trolley-wheel would have a corresponding groove therein corresponding to the trolley-wheel as ordinarily made, to that extent.

The under side of the rail being made to correspond with the periphery of the trolleywheel, the outside thereof is provided with straight sides, flaring outwardly as they extend upward, and the parts f and f on the faces thereof adjacent to and in contact with the insulating material G are shaped to correspond with the shape of the sides of the third rail, and as such insulating material is pressed closely to the third rail by the turn ing up of the bolt f or nut f 5 or other similar mode of forcing the parts together the third rail is thereby held securely in position.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In an electric railroad, a standard provided with a head, an additional part, such head and additional part forming jaws, a rail provided with upwardly-flaring sides such sides corresponding with the inner faces of the jaws, and insulating material with corresponding sides between the rail and the inner faces of the jaws, in combination with a shield extending over the head of the standard and longitudinally over the rail, and a bolt extending through the shield, through the additional part of the head and through the head of the standard, to hold such shield, the rail, the additional part and the insulating material to the head on the standard; sub- 5 stantially as described.

2. In an electric railroad, a standard provided with a head, a removable part attached to the head, such head and removable part forming jaws, a rail provided with a groove 10 on the under side thereof held by the jaws, and insulating material between the rail and the jaws with a shield over the rail, and not in electrical contact therewith, attached to the standard, the sides of such third rail flaring outward from the lower edges thereof and the inner faces of the parts forming the jaw corresponding with the flaring sides of the rail, substantially as described.

JEREMIAH MURPHY. In presence of CHARLES TURNER BROWN, 001m A. ADAMS. 

